Amazing instruments by Fred Carlson

Fred Carlson, co-founder of Beyond the Trees, has been hand-building original and traditional guitars and other stringed instruments for nearly 40 years. If you like beautiful, unusual instruments and you're not familiar with Fred's work, you're in for a treat. A unique combination of discipline, skill, whimsy and innovation, along with an intuition finely honed by years of experimenting, makes Fred's work stand apart from that of other luthiers.

Rather than viewing the guitar as a collection of separate components,
i.e. body, neck, bridge etc., each of Fred's instruments is conceived of,
from the design stage on, as a coherent piece of sculpture. This attention
to how details combine to make the whole is carried through in the sculpting
of the instrument's voice as well.

An important focus for Fred is that of insuring that the unusual design
features add to, rather than detract from, the instrument's function. In
the end, all these factors- tone, playability, visual and tactile effect-
are intertwined in the creation one of Fred's guitars.

In the case of custom orders, Fred enjoys working closely with the customer
to help them realize their instrument dream. And he's a nice guy to work
with, to boot!